Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 10:21:24 -0400
From: "Flynn Mclean"
Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 09/11/96
AIDS Daily Summary
September 11, 1996
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National
AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a
public service only. Providing this information does not
constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC National AIDS
Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this
text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this
information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
******************************************************
"Green Cross of Japan Settles AIDS Lawsuits"
"States Are in a Crunch Over New AIDS Drugs"
"Drug Chief Says No to Pot Plan"
"Report Warned of AIDS Risk, Trial Told"
"Quebec to Set Up Own Blood System"
"Britons Wary of New AIDS Drug, Expert Says"
"Foscarnet, Ganciclovir Protect Against AIDS-Related Kaposi's
Sarcoma"
"Crystallographers Pinpoint What Goes Where"
"Cel-Sci Raises $5 Million"
******************************************************
"Green Cross of Japan Settles AIDS Lawsuits"
New York Times (09/11/96) P. D3
Green Cross, Japan's largest maker of blood plasma products,
said Tuesday that it would pay $11 million, or 1.3 billion yen,
in 109 lawsuits settled over HIV-tainted blood products. The
company said it hoped to settle 52 additional lawsuits by paying
700 million yen and that it expects to pay a total of 5.8 billion
yen this fiscal year for 467 claimants.
"States Are in a Crunch Over New AIDS Drugs"
Philadelphia Inquirer (09/11/96) P. A9; Vedantam, Shankar
Many states are running out of money to pay for expensive
new AIDS drugs and thus failing to meet the rising demand from
patients. Protease inhibitors, taken in combination with older
AIDS drugs, have proven effective in extending the lives of many
people with AIDS. About 70,000 people now receive the drugs
through the Ryan White CARE Act, and the number is expected to
increase to 100,000 next year. To meet that demand, however, the
federal government would have to add $200 million a year to its
current budget of $124 million, according to the National
Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD). NASTAD
notes that states need to increase their funding by about $70
million. The President has proposed a $73 million increase in
the drug budget for next year.
"Drug Chief Says No to Pot Plan"
Washington Post (09/11/96) P. A2
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the national drug control policy
director, said he opposes the proposed legalization of marijuana
for medical use in California. He called the idea "dangerous and
wrong," saying that Proposition 215 on California's November
ballot "poses a serious threat to the effectiveness of drug
enforcement and prevention" by providing legal loopholes for drug
dealers. McCaffrey refuted claims that marijuana use is helpful
for patients with AIDS and cancer, saying that the same
psychoactive ingredient in the drug is available in a pill form
already used for treating HIV wasting syndrome and
chemotherapy-induced nausea.
"Report Warned of AIDS Risk, Trial Told"
Toronto Globe and Mail (09/10/96) P. A7; Downey, Donn
In a trial charging the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) with
negligence leading to the deaths of two individuals from AIDS, a
Canadian doctor testified that the medical community suspected at
the time that HIV was spread via blood transfusions. The estates
of the plaintiffs claim the CRC was negligent in failing to
screen out two gay blood donors whose blood was contaminated.
Dr. Joseph Shuster, of Montreal General Hospital and McGill
University, testified that in 1982, before the blood was donated,
the medical community had been advised to not accept blood from
gays and that hemophiliacs were at risk for AIDS.
"Quebec to Set Up Own Blood System"
Toronto Globe and Mail (09/10/96) P. A1; Coutts, Jane
At a meeting of Canadian health officials called to reform
the nation's blood system, Quebec's health minister announced that
the province will set up its own system, which may run
cooperatively with the new national system being planned. Jean
Rochon announced the plan Monday, saying details of Quebec's plan
will be announced by the end of the year. The nation's health
ministers are charged with reforming the flawed blood system, which
resulted in thousands of Canadians to contract HIV and hepatitis C.
"Britons Wary of New AIDS Drug, Expert Says"
Reuters (09/10/96)
British doctors are more cautious than American physicians
about prescribing the new protease inhibitors for AIDS patients,
an expert said Tuesday. Dr. Ian Weller of University College
London said that talk of curing AIDS with drug combinations
including protease inhibitors is premature. "You are actually
committing people to many, many years of treatment with
combination drugs and you don't know what the long term effects
are," he noted. While researchers have reported that the drugs
are able to lower the level of virus in the body to undetectable
amounts, Weller said the virus could be hiding in other sites.
"Foscarnet, Ganciclovir Protect Against AIDS-Related Kaposi's
Sarcoma"
Reuters (09/10/96)
The anti-herpesvirus drugs foscarnet and ganciclovir have
been shown to protect against the development of Kaposi's sarcoma
in patients with HIV. British researchers studied the use of the
drugs and the occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma, after a new
herpesvirus was associated with the disease. Dr. Amanda Mocroft
of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and colleagues found
that, among 3,600 patients with HIV, 16.2 percent developed
Kaposi's over a four-year period. Treatment with foscarnet and
ganciclovir were associated with a decreased risk for the disease.
Acyclovir was found not to have a protective effect.
"Crystallographers Pinpoint What Goes Where"
Science (08/30/96) Vol. 273, No. 5279, P. 1174; Service, Robert
F.
AZT may not be as effective against HIV as it could be
because its molecular structure may not fit well with the
cellular enzyme needed for its activation, say researchers from
Germany's Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology. AZT is
designed to prevent viruses like HIV from replicating by blocking
the nucleotide thymidine, which the virus needs to translate the
RNA in their genome into DNA inside the cells they invade. Arnon
Lavie, Jochen Reinstein, and colleagues found that AZT lacks the
proper structure to bind to thymidylate kinase (TmpK), the enzyme
needed for the drug to block thymidine. The researchers are
trying to crystallize AZT in conjunction with TmpK to determine
if this is the problem. Better-binding forms of the drug could
be developed if their theory proves correct.
"Cel-Sci Raises $5 Million"
Washington Business Journal (08/23/96-08/29/96) Vol. 15, No. 15,
P. 45
Cel-Sci's recent U.S. private placement generated $5 million
in revenue that will be used to further research and development
on the biotechnology firm's cancer and HIV products. Cel-Sci
officials expect the $10 million now possessed by the concern to
be adequate to support the company's operations for about two
years. Important clinical data from several ongoing cancer and
HIV studies are expected in less than a year.